New to MFP...any ideas on lowering cholesterol?????

Leslisa...I tried Niacin once when it was really high in my 20's.......BAD REACTION....how does it do for you???

I take time release niacin, 1 am, and 1 pm, and also fish oil. Have been doing this for two years now. Tried the statins first, but I had a reaction of pain in the soles of my feet. I could barely walk in the mornings or after sitting inactive for a while - like going to a movie for instance.

Get this book: Cholesterol Down 10 - Steps to Lower you Cholesterol... by Janet Brill. Ms Brill is a nutritionist, and controls her own cholesterol with diet and exercise. She has identified the best foods to eat to control cholesterol, and backed up each step with clinical results. If you really don't want to take perscription medicine, give this plan a try.

Feel free to friend me.

I can't eat oatmeal....I have a sensitive palate...Mushy foods cause me to involuntarily gag! It sucks...I can't even eat banannas or yogurt......

I know what you mean about the oatmeal! I don't care for the mush either. So, I have started using it as an ingredient in other foods - meatloaf, casserole topping (use it like bread crumbs/crackers), baked into cookies. If I do make a bowl of oatmeal, I crush nuts on top and that helps the texture.

I mix 1 cup of plain yogurt into a small box of jello with 1 1/2 cups of water. Let it sit overnight - I call it "jiggly yogurt" and it has the texture of jello instead of yogurt.

I also have high cholesterol and am only 27....boo geneics..hah. They don't want to put me on drugs long term, so Im also doing it the nice old fashioned way of diet and exercise. I am already a healthy weight, and eat very well. I saw a nutritionist though, and she said a lot of the things already mentioned in this post (which she was pleased to see that I do already from my food diary). She strongly suggested adding 1/3 cup of bran buds to my diet every day, and omega 3 supplement, and 2tbs a day of chia seeds (can find at any health food store, and now many grocery stores.....just sprinkle on yogurt, or anything, salad, they are kind of like sesame seeds). After my first follow up, my cholesterol had decreased a lot. I have found it really easy to keep up with the seeds and supplement...I don't love the bran that much, so I try to do it when I can.

I am glad I am not on the meds. Just be conscious to stay off too much red meat, too much dairy, etc.

I have been battling my cholesterol for 2 years now and although I just started "dieting" for weight loss, I have been doing all I can to lower my cholesterol numbers(bad triglycerides and HDL) the past year or so. My physical 5 weeks ago was the first time I have had normal cholesterol numbers.

The things I have done:

Oatmeal or high fiber ceral every morning.
I was taking Red Krill instead of fish oil tablets, but was switched to Lovaza by my doctor. This is a mega dose of fish oil by script.
I stopped drinking milk and started using Almond Milk.
Only eating red meat once a week.
exercising 5 days a week.
quit smoking

Good luck to you!

"Leslisa...I tried Niacin once when it was really high in my 20's.......BAD REACTION....how does it do for you??? "

I'm fine with it. I've been taking it for about a year now.

Honestly, I don't know if it helps or not since I made so many modifications at the same time. Examples: 30 minutes light cardio to intense cardio, limiting canned soup (this was really hard, I love Cambell's), changing the types of carbs I eat, eating 6 or 7 small meals a day instead of 2 larger, etc.

I should have added, I drink 8 cups of water, 2 cups of green tea (1 caf, 1 decaf), and 1 cup of rooibos tea a day, too (I'm in the bathroom a lot . The green tea and rooibos are not doc recommended, didn't come in any of the doc provided literature, etc., but I was pretty desperate to stay off meds since I'd tried that route and felt like *kitten* the whole time I was on them so I checked out what might possibly hit all three of my issues and both came up.

I think it's awesome you are trying natural solutions. Best of luck to you. I hope they work as well for you as they are for me. :glasses:

Really, if the HDL, BP and triglycerides are OK, you probably don't need to worry all that much. Do some research and speak with your doctor and a dietician/nutritionist. High cholesterol in and of itself, with no other negative factors, isn't as bad as people think.

Glad someone mentioned that. There are 2 types of LDL, dense and "fluffy", and only the dense ones are bad. IIRC, they estimate the ratio of the 2 using your LDL and triglyceride numbers. If your triglycerides are good, you'd have fewer of the dense LDL.

Gosh it's hard to understand why someone as healthy and as fit looking as you can have a cholesterol which is too high. What has your doctor advised?

Most conventional medicine regarding cholesterol is crap. My FIL's cardiologist had him on margarine, of all things. He would use margarine for everything. His levels were awful. I'm not saying you're as clueless as he was, but here's his story:

After he ended up in the hospital for 4 days due to skyrocketing blood pressure which wouldn't come down, (his cholesterol and triglycerides have been horrible for a few years now) he decided his diet needed to change. I took him grocery shopping, taught him how to read a food label, and he ONLY consumes these fats now:
olive oil for low - moderate cooking and drizzling (This is his primary form of fat)
coconut oil for moderate to high heat cooking, in moderation
cold pressed grapeseed oil and butter flavored grapeseed oil (not heated, not for cooking, just for drizzling)
Butter on special occasions.

He has been BANNED from the margarine, even the so called "healthy" ones.

While I believe butter is fine in moderation, and I eat it, the man needed more plant based fats and would be consuming WAY too much butter so HE decided to cut it out of his daily life completely.

He also cut out almost ALL PROCESSED FOODS with the exception of whole grain bread.
He also no longer drinks cow's milk (that's due to sugar content which he needs to watch due to extremely high triglycerides) He has switched to unsweetened almond milk and he loves it.

He takes omega 3 fish oil three times a day, he snacks on nuts and he eats eggs. He goes for a 30 minute walk about 4 days a week.

Everything is changing! His cardiologist is extremely happy and told him to keep doing whatever he was doing because it's working. HIS MEDICATIONS ARE BEING REDUCED.

I have eaten eggs, olive oil, butter in moderation, red meat, coconut oil, etc for years and years. My HDL, LDL and triglycerides are all at a balance that wards off heart disease. Dietary fat is not your enemy with the exception of trans fats. Those should be completely eliminated from your diet altogether. Read food labels, if it says "hydrogenated' avoid it like the plague, even if it says there are "0" grams in it, because the FDA allows those grams to be rounded down if they are under a certain amount. If it's hydrogenated, it's trans fat and it will harm you.
Add AS MANY sources of monounsaturated fats as you possibly can to your day, including avocados. I would track monos rather than sats in your food diary, because honestly that will make more of a diference. You want to avoid sauteeing or cooking with your plant based fats (except coconut oil) as much as possible. Heat actually changes the molecular structure of fragile plant oils and at that point they can take on qualities like trans fats and cause oxidative tissue damage.

You are doing great living an active lifestyle, keep it up and it's your best friend along with increasing your monounsaturated fats to help reduce your cholesterol levels and get the ratios closer to where you want them.

I'm not a dietician, I have formally studied nutrition, not that it makes a difference, most of the material I formally studied was questionable. However I have had a passion for nutrition and the healing properties of food since I first stepped foot into my Dad's garden and then learned to read. I've always studied everything I can get my hands on about nutrition and I believe this has kept me very healthy despite my formerly sedentary lifestyle. I'm 35. So take my opinion with a grain of salt if you desire, but hopefully there is something helpful in here for you to research more on your own if you wish And bottom line, dietary speaking, eliminating as much processed food as you can and not fearing anything in it's whole and natural form will help you tremendously.

I'm probably going to get flamed for this but I don't care, it may help you. This is not about calories, it's about your heart health.
I took a look at a few days of your food diary and a few suggestions I would make if you were my family member:

Ditch the eggo waffles, find some sort of protein waffle or pancake you can make up in advance and keep on hand instead.
check your peanut butter to make sure it's not hiding any hidden hydrogenated oils
Ditch the chips, baked or otherwise
BAN the american cheese and that goes for cheese whiz or velveeta if those are in your diet!
Get rid of the white bread, any white bread
Ditch your salad dressing and just use hugh quality = flavorful olive oil and lemon on your salads
Any Fried fast food = trans fats = bad
Stop eating things like Ritz crackers = trans fats
Quit buying precooked meats and cook up your own on the weekends. Those are loaded with sodium.
Seriously avoid the majority of processed foods, there are so many healthy convenient foods out there now that can help you with this. If it says KRAFT, oscar meyer, etc steer clear. And if it says in small print "unilever" keep in mind, Unilever has manufactured chemicals for years, do you really want to get your food from them?

Totally repeat that this is just my opinion, and totally not trying to sound like a critical know it all Hope this helps. Good luck and feel free to message me, add me if you want

I also forgot to add I agree about the fiber try oatmeal or 7 grain toast instead of eggos And if you make yourself a high fiber piece of toast spread with some real almond butter you got yourself a satisfying heart healthy breakfast Sigh... wish I could have toast!

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